March to June 2020 Pamdemic

HI FRIENDS!  So...we sort of have not really seen many of you in person due to this SOCIAL DISTANCING THING
(Sign we found up in SLC while walking with our daughter)


And this DISINFECTED TIME of our lives.












But that does not mean we have not been thinking of  you!

So, here is an update about us and a couple of great RM interactions in person over the last couple of months.
So, March brought on a new world for us.  We made it back from a trip to New Jersey...barely.  This is me in a deserted airport in Newark.  Scott flew back the day of the SLC earthquake and got rerouted for a long time! HA!



Our relationships with our grandkids and most of our adult kids became totally online and a few trips were cancelled because we can not go see them or they cannot come see us. (WA and NJ and UT are not highly sought after places to travel about now)
We miss seeing them in person so much!

Scott started working from home and I had to quit teaching my Pre-K classes.

We started walking a LOT in our area and discovered the amazing wetlands just south of our new home.
This is Scott looking at a pelican flying.
We have become as our kids term it
BIRD NERDS!!!







Since I was not teaching, I organized tons of photos online and also became involved in the PROJECT PROTECT for Utah and helped sew masks for hospitals. 

I also sewed masks for pretty much all of our family including all my kids, grandkids, some siblings, nieces and nephews.

That was a very fulfilling project and I am so grateful that my Mom taught me to sew!

One of my favorite fabrics was this "TACO DOG" fabric that my nieces and nephews totally got dibs on!

So, back to the bird nerd thing...Scott and I had no weekend plans so we made a few trips to new places including the Bear River Bird and Wildlife Refuge up by Brigham City.

You can see we have become bird photographers as well!

Truly stunning to see so many cool birds up close and personal!





OK...up close and personal has moved outside for our local kids.  We meet outside and sometimes have MOVIE NIGHT in the backyard.  If anybody wants to schedule a movie night with us, that is an option!

This is random.  One day this little guy literally dive bombed us in our front yard.  We grabbed butterfly nets and Scott easily caught him and we used a Pre-K bird cage from our play pet store.

He is a noisy little bugger and gets taken to time out when Scott has online Church News meetings, which is often.

Another outing to ANTELOPE ISLAND.  We went hiking once there with some of you RMs, but went back to hike a different trail and I got a pic of the photographer in action taking shots of a buffalo.
It was a long but very lovely hike.

OK...this has got to be one of the BEST THINGS of our quarantine.
We got to attend a private sealing with Melissa Chord and Andrew Fairbanks in the Payson Temple.

It was one of the most spiritual feelings to be in that temple knowing you were one of only 15 people total there including the workers.  God does know "the one" and cares for their needs!
Made our YEAR to be there for that special day!

Our daughter Breanna is a wonderful activist for human rights and we got to invite her to come to a great rally held by BYU.

I had just "happened" to meet up with our friend Stacey Harkey at the gym the day before and he told me about this.

It was a WONDERFUL evening listening to and trying to understand better our brothers and sisters of color. 
We are trying hard to become better covenant keepers so that we can "bear one another's burdens that they may be light."


We encourage you all to become involved and educated on how to be a better ambassador to ALL for the Savior in real life.

More bird nerd outings, this time WAY OUT THERE to Fish Springs, UT.

Trying to do our part by donating blood!

And, our most wonderful outing last weekend to celebrate the wedding of cute HAILEY BEAZER to Kole Randall.
They did the cutest "Drive-In Movie" theme drive-by Open House and I forgot to snap a picture so this will have to do!  But they looked so happy! 

We love you all SO MUCH!  Please do not hesitate to reach out if we can be helpful, if you want to schedule a movie night or visit...and we will look forward to a BBQ and renewed dinner parties when this pandemic has lifted.
In the meantime, BE SAFE, WEAR A MASK and know you are VIRTUALLY HUGGED!

JANUARY and FEBRUARY 2020

HI FRIENDS!
Scott and I have had a lovely winter!
We wish some of you could have hiked ARCHES with us in January...snowy but BEAUTIFUL!  We had such a great time.

This is the famous "Delicate Arch" you see on license plates etc. in Utah.  We are standing quite far from it, it is actually huge.
We miraculously bought spike crampons for our shoes before this outing which SAVED OUR LIVES!!!

We made a trip to the MONTICELLO temple on that Moab outing as well...a lovely little temple in southern Utah.

Scott had the opportunity to go to MEXICO CITY to do a story on the MTC there and also got to see the temple there!
It is so WHITE!!!

It was so fun for him to run into Ben Fagersten's parents there in the Visitor Center.  We had seen them in the MTC before they left, and he got to see them again!  So cool!

Scott was also able to meet up with a former Mission President and Wife from the SW area that served the same time as us, John and Anne Pingree.  We love Elder and Sister Pingree so much, they are the most loving, humble people ever!
They are serving in the Area Presidency there in Mexico City.

The Mexico City MTC

And Scott made it out to see the Teotihuacan pyramids too!  What an amazing place!







We LOVE our dinner groups!  We are doing more "created groups" where we try to get together missionaries who served with each other so they can see each other again too. 
This was a group from earlier in our mission, hence the number of CHILDREN!!


We were able to get:  Chris and Amy Budge with kiddos Brooklyn and Link, Mason Halligan and his kids Griffin and Elliot and girlfriend Mariah?  Mitch Peterson, Brooke and Mikey Murphy and little Hugh, and finally, DJ and Shelby Bush with baby Oakley…so cute!  I got some good GRANDMA TIME with the kids too!

In February, Scott went with his brother Mitch back to Mitch's mission area in South Africa.
Here they got to participate in the Durban South Africa Temple Dedication.

Here is the temple at night...just stunning!  Such fitting architecture for this temple.

Scott and Mitch also did a safari thing, but no pics posted here.

Another wonderful DINNER GROUP was with Jeff Griffin, Juan Castanos and Paul Wilson.
We have the BEST TIME talking to you great RM's.
Life is just better because we have YOU in it!
We count ourselves so very blessed to know each one of you, seriously!

We love randomly running into great RM's.
We were at RootsTech the last of February and noticed Chris Nicholas showing up on Scott's "Relatives At RootsTech" list on Family Search.  Messaged him and voila!  Instant meeting!
MADE OUR DAY!

And...some of you will remember our neighbor Dana that was baptized while we served.  She and another friend from the old WestWing Ward came out for RootsTech and stayed with us for the last week of the month as well.
Here we were at a BYU Men's Volleyball game and got Cosmo to stop for some pics.


WE LOVE YOU!  Schedule a time for a dinner group either on FB or contact us personally to create a group!

NOVEMBER and DECEMBER 2019

HI FRIENDS!  We have had a wonderful November and December!
One of our goals is to get to all the Utah Temples and we made a weekend trip down south first to Saint George before that temple closed for renovations.  Such a pretty white temple!

And all lit up afterwards it was stunning too!

The next morning we went to the Cedar City Temple, a smaller but beautiful temple as well!  We did sealings there, lots of family names I have been pulling together!

Then we made a trip over to Cedar Breaks National Monument to do some hiking...chilly and some frozen streams, but very walkable trails.

And more stunning views!

Scott covered a Tuesday Devotional at the MTC with Elder and Sister Uchtdorf that was really good!  He gets to do some great assignments!

We had a drop-by visit from Conner Albrecht and Sarah Jensen one night early November too, and fun visiting with them for a while!

Then we had family come visit a while...our daughter Jenna and her two youngest, Klay and Cassidy.
We were busy going all over including BYU Women's Soccer which we followed a bit this year...

...and BYU Football which we always have season tickets.

















We got this photo from Nathan Wainwright letting us know that he and Brooke are in the same ward as the Millers; Claire and Trevor, both of whom served in the APM too!  Small World!!











We got to go up to Brigham City area for the reception of Dallyn Zaugg to his wife Sharni.  So fun to visit with them and hear their story and to talk to his folks again.

Scott and I went up to the SLC Temple on our temple quest...finally did a session there after SO MANY SEALING visits!
Attended the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert afterwards!

Christmas Day we were alone all morning, so we did our traditional Santa Hat Walk in the snow...

...then changed clothes to go to the MTC for the Christmas Devotional so Scott could cover it for Church News.
Elder D Todd Christofferson and his wife Kathy spoke and it was so good!













We met up with my nephew, Elder Hunter headed to GILBERT AZ!!
Afterwards we got a photo with hats I brought.
The missionaries were loving the snow!